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HR Feels Good About 2019

By
HR&DigitalTrends editors
on January 15, 2019

Economic outlook, trade war and stock market see-sawing may be dampening our first month in 2019, but HR leaders are feeling optimistic.

According to the survey results from 2019 Talent Trends, Randstad Sourceright's newly released Business Health Index, global business health improved greatly in 2018 that led to “widespread hiring and facilitated by positive political environments that enable ease of business,” said a press release.

The index is based on surveys conducted with more than 800 C-suite and human capital leaders at large companies in 17 scores. The scores are a composite of four key measures of business outlook: actual business growth against expectations, levels of hiring, the political environment’s impact on business and the future growth outlook.

The index combined four key measures to formulate a single outlook score for each country, including actual business growth against expectations, levels of hiring, the political environment's impact on business and future growth outlook.

Key results showed that positive business sentiment grew 37 percent from last year among C-suite and HR leaders. The number of C-suite and HR leaders in the U.S. who said they hired extensively in the last 12 months was up by nearly 90 percent from 2016.

While U.S. respondents remain optimistic for 2019, they are less confident than the year before. According to weighted index scores, positive overall business sentiment in the U.S. fell by 17 points in the last year. Meanwhile, sentiment rose by 64 points in the U.K. and 49 points in Canada, making them more bullish about 2019 prospects.

Japan, Germany, Australia and the U.K. ranked highest in the 2019 index, despite uncertainty brought about by Brexit. The U.S., Poland and Mexico showed the least positive outlooks for the year ahead.